Introduction

It started with an ordinary game of Monopoly. Three friends shook dice and exchanged pink and blue bills over an old, chewed board as the hours melted into the Santa Clara night.

The game unfolded the same as it had since they were kids: The opening land-grab, the alliances, hating (and then not minding) sitting in jail, the ante suddenly spiking when a red hotel broke ground on Boardwalk. At some point, one friend asked the group if they ever heard of an "NFT," or non-fungible token. One friend shrugged his shoulders. The other said to stop stalling and pay the rent. After all, it was 2018. CryptoPunk NFTs weren't selling for millions of dollars and Snoop Dogg wouldn't be outed as NFT influencer Cozomo de' Medici for another three years. NFTs just weren't a big deal yet.

As the game went on, they started talking about NFTs more. They didn't know much about it, but the idea of true ownership of digital assets, backed by blockchain, had interesting prospects. Right there, bringing together Monopoly-style property-collecting, blockchain gaming, and NFTs, the Upland metaverse was born.

This might not seem crazy now, but in 2018 the metaverse wasn't nearly as trendy as it is today. Back then launching a blockchain game sounded a bit crazy. Think about it: Three Silicon Valley entrepreneurs believed they could upend multi-billion-dollar industries like video games and social media with a mobile game concept based on a century-old property-management board game. As it turned out, they were not only spot on, but years ahead of most of the world. Just a few years ago, NFTs and the metaverse weren't on the radar. CryptoKitties, the game many say gave blockchain gaming credibility, was first released in 2017. OpenSea, one of the most popular NFT marketplaces, opened shop in 2017 too. Axie Infinity, another blockchain game that caught on like wildfire, launched in 2018. Fast forward to today, and you see everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to teenagers to Snoop Dogg talking about NFTs and the metaverse.

So what convinced the Upland founders that the metaverse would be so big? Need a hint? We mentioned it earlier. One word: ownership.

You can find Monopoly in hundreds of variations, countless languages, and on virtually any device. Why is it so widely welcomed into our homes and even cultures around the world? Is it that perfect blend of chance and skill? Maybe for some folks with a knack for winning. But we think it's the powerful concept of ownership - of accumulating wealth - that scratches an itch deep inside of all of us. Who doesn't want more control - dare we say a monopoly - in their professional, personal, and financial lives?

Monopoly isn't real, of course. But what would happen if people could earn assets in a game that have real-world value? The concept of ownership - giving players real skin in the game - changes everything. That's the essence of an NFT. In a digital world full of stock art, torrent media, and even artificial intelligence (AI) that writes content, an NFT ensures the owner has sole rights to the digital asset. Now, assets can be more than ones and zeroes - they are unique and verifiable on the blockchain.

This concept changed everything. People are willing to pay real money for NFTs. Then blockchain gaming gave players more than intrinsic value in the traditional "play-to-win" model: "Play-to-earn" gaming, where players are rewarded with assets that have extrinsic, monetary value, became a reality.

Which is better, a game where you're trading time for entertainment (and maybe some glory), or a game where you have an experience and get something with real-world value? To be fair, a good time is a valid reward, and it would be shallow to say that people always want monetary incentives. But there are plenty of examples supporting the idea that people are drawn to reward-based systems: earning points with a credit card provider, gamified incentives at work, competitive eSports - the list goes on and on because people like the feeling of accumulating something tangible. We all seek the thrill of winning.

Considering all of this, the dawn of a new era - let's call it the metaverse economy - was inevitable. We only needed technology to evolve to better reflect our behaviors. And now it has. The metaverse represents the newest environment where people can generate extrinsic value from entertainment. But what does that have to do with businesses?

Why Should Businesses Care About the Metaverse Economy?

In this book, we hope not only to help you find your eureka moment like the Upland founders did, but also to give you the tools you need to do something with it. Before we get to that, we feel it's important to help businesses find their "why". We spend a whole chapter on building a business case, but for now the shortest, simplest answer we have is something we've already mentioned.

It's about ownership.

Typically when we see innovation (not incremental optimization of technology, but transformative, watershed innovation), we see two things driving it: a cultural behavior shift, and the technology surrounding it. This was as true when humans built the first civilizations as when we send suspender-wearing plumbers down green pipes to save a princess from a rude dragon.

Following this, the metaverse economy is the outcome of an inflection point in consumer behavior. Digital-first consumers who spend their free time on their phones, computers, and gaming consoles build an identity - even online personas - that matters to them. But when they log off to rejoin the offline world, that sense of identity is largely left behind. In this way, ownership is limited, finite.

Writer and philosopher Will Durant once said, "We are what we repeatedly do." However, for many people who invest time, energy, and money into their "digital lives," the connection is largely lost when at work, school, or walking down the street. The metaverse has the potential to change all of this by interweaving online and offline realities into something new. This is achieved in a few ways:

• Metaverse apps give people the communities and ecosystems to further develop their digital identities.
• Web 3.0 technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will create more immersive experiences in virtual and physical spaces.
• Assets backed by blockchains, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), give people a way to earn and own digital items with real fiat value.

True ownership of assets, technologies that bring digital worlds into the real world, and more immersive digital worlds give consumers the freedom to actualize and own their digital identities everywhere. This has the potential to change the way we live, work, learn, shop, and socialize. This is where businesses come into play.

Through the metaverse, businesses get to connect their digital platforms with the real world in new ways. When they do this, there are new avenues for content, marketing, products, services, and revenue streams that are as close to multidimensional as anything we've ever seen. Thanks to the immutable blockchain, there are transparent records and control for intellectual property (IP). Even better, businesses have a chance to own the buying journey again. Thanks to eCommerce and an abundance of online content, brands are lucky to get a word in on purchasing decisions these days. Inside the metaverse, though, companies can create assets and experiences that attract eager consumers. New buying journeys in the metaverse economy empower businesses to become active participants in the purchasing process once again. On top of that, every interaction generates useful data about consumer preferences in this new space.

Businesses that get involved in the creation of the metaverse early will have a distinctive early-adopter advantage, allowing them to have more ownership of the metaverse's total available market and culture as it becomes mainstream. You don't need to look far to see how IPs such as Fortnite and Roblox have already transformed games into social entertainment hubs that are incredibly profitable for business partners. These platforms only scratch the surface of metaverse applications, but they show us how younger audiences crave community and novel content - even from brands. Layering an open metaverse economy into these experiences gives players and companies limitless possibilities to grow into the metaverse and build a new culture together that covers gaming, work, education, socialization, and commerce.

Who Should Read This Book

We're writing this book for those with questions, those with some metaverse and blockchain knowledge, and those who are just curious paired with some skepticism. Those living and breathing the metaverse may find confirmation of their existing foundational knowledge offered early in the book. But the frameworks, expert interviews, and author insights in the meat of the book could help everyone solidify a project or strategy.

Whoever you are and whatever your goals, thank you for reading our book! There's an abundance of information on the web, and we hope that this material is structured in a way that cuts through the confusion and gets you to making decisions.

If you're reading this book, you likely gravitate toward innovation - you're curious about what's coming and how...